He founded his treatise (c. 825) on Caesar,
Pliny, and Solinus; he quotes and names many other
writers, including fourteen Greek; and generally impresses
us with his earnest studentship. An Irish monk named
Donatus wandered to Italy and became bishop of Fiesole
(c. 829); he, too, was a scholar acquainted with Virgil, a
teacher of grammar and prosody, and a lecturer on the
saints.[1] Sedulius, the commentator, an Irish monk of
Liege, copied Greek psalters, wrote Latin verses, knew
Cicero's letters, the works of Valerius Maximus, Vegetius,
Origen, and Jerome; was well acquainted with mythology and
history, and perhaps had some Hebrew.[2] Another Irishman,
John the Scot (Joannes Scotus Erigena), became the most
eminent scholar of his time: he alone, among all the learned
men Charles the Bald had about him, was able to translate
from Greek (c. 858-860). Well might Eric of Auxerre, writing
to Charles, express his astonishment at this train of
philosophers from Ireland, that barbarous land on the
confines of the world.[3] All these wanderers, and many
more, must have been responsible for the dissemination of
the books produced by Irish hands; and, in fact, many
manuscripts of Celtic origin and early in date, are still on
the Continent, or have been found there and brought to
Ireland.
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